goanimate_v3fandomcom-20200214-history
The mysteries of Life with Selkie and friends: Energy Pyramid
(The Mysteries of life with Selkie and friends) *(An animation of a fire breathing dragon flying) *Male voice: It's that time of year again. The time when fear leaves the skies and heads into your living room. Nature's deadliest killing machines. *(Animation shows a fire breathing dragon usings his foot to stomp on a monkey) *(SMASH!) *Male voice: As you've never seen them before. *(Animation shows a fire breathing dragon breathing fire which burns down the anteater) *(PCHEW!) *Male voice: It's the year of the dragon. And this time, it's personal. *Bing Bong: Wow! *Selkie: I don't think you have anything to worry about. Some of that footage seems a little fake. *(Reggie gives the note to Selkie) *Selkie: Dear Selkie and friends, What is an energy pyramid? Your friend Lyndis. *Classified: Maybe this. (Sits on top of the pyramid) *Selkie: Uh, I don't think she means that pyramid. The energy pyramid is a model for how energy spreads through the ecosystem. You remember food chains right? *Sharptooth: Yep. (Shows a chain of sausage) *Selkie: Why are you being so literal today? Okay, the food chain describes how organisms in an ecosystem are linked together by what they eat. At the bottom are producers. On land, that includes plants, from moss and grass to shrubs and trees. *(A giraffe appears) *Selkie: The producers are eaten by primary consumers such as elephants. These are herbivores or plant eaters. *Selkie: In turn, the primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers. *(A hyena appears) *Selkie: These are carnivores or meat eaters. This continues until you reach the animals at the top of the food chain, which have no natural enemies. *(A leopard chases a hyena) *(GULP!) *Chanticleer: What about a fire breathing dragon? Dragons eat elephants. *Selkie: Hmm, dragons are at the top of the sky food chain. *(A paw from a male lion slays the dragon) *Selkie: Lions might be a better example here. Meanwhile decomposers, like bacteria and fungi, break down dead animal and plant manner. This recycles nutrients back to the ecosystem. *(A Food chain with different African animals and plants are seen) *Selkie: Food chains usually combine to form food webs, made of many interconnected and overlapping chains. But let's back up for a a sec and ask why animals eat in the first place. *Aslan: Sure. what about plants and other animals. *Selkie: Well, yes, leaves, grasshoppers and snakes are delicious in certain cultures I guess. But that's not it. Animals eat to gain energy. *Freddy Ferret: Really? *Selkie: It all starts with producers. They create all of the usable energy in an ecosystem, that's why they're called producers. *(We see grass holding a cup) *Selkie: Through the process of photosynthesis, they convert the sun's light energy into chemical energy, specifically, a simple sugar called glucose. *(The sunlight puts glucose into the cup) *Selkie: Glucose is the fuel that drives all living organisms. *(The grass drinks the glucose from the cup and burps) *Selkie: Plants use up most of the glucose they make to grow and reproduce. But they store a little bit of it in their bodies. *(An African elephant appears) *Selkie: So when an elephant eats a plant, he's only getting a small fraction of energy the plant got from the sun. *(We see the elephant holding the cup) *Selkie: The elephant, in turn uses up most of that energy to do things like breathe, keep warm, move around, and, um, make baby elephants. *(A lion appears takes the cup from the elephant and drinks the last drop of glucose) *Selkie: So if a lion comes along and eats that elephant, he's only getting a teeny tiny fraction of the energy that was first absorbed by the plants. Get it? *Cyber Woo: Yes. *Selkie: Right, all of the energy in an ecosystem ultimately comes from the sun and since the amount of energy decreases as it travels up the food chain, it can be represented as a pyramid. *Soren: What else? *Selkie: In general, each level of the pyramid gets ten times less energy than the level below it. So let's say you've got a square meter of jungles. Every year, the plants growing in that forest floor produce 10,000 calories. That's a unit of energy. *(Elephants and ostriches appear) *Selkie: Now let's say herbivores consume those 10,000 calories. They burn 9,000 calories and store 1,000 in their bodies. So for their predators that square meter of jungle produce only 1,000 calories of energy per year. *(Leopards and jackals appear) *Selkie: That means there are gonna be way fewer leopards and jackals than elephants and ostriches. See where this is going? *Ray: Of course. *Selkie: Right! If the carnivores eat all of the primary consumers, they'll gain 1,000 calories of energy. They'll use up 900 calories and store 100 in their bodies. So, for the top predators such as lions and crocodiles, that square meter of forest only yields 100 calories per year. *(Grim Matchstick, Ace and Geon Jr. replace the lion and crocodile with a fire breathing dragon) *Selkie: Oh come on. Dragons aren't part of the equation here! *(Selkie replaces the fire breathing dragon with a crocodile and a lion) *Selkie: That's better. Anyway, since the lions and crocodiles have a fairly limited number of calories to live on, the ecosystem just can't support that many of them! So in most cases, as energy decreases up the food chain, so does biomass, the combined mass of all the organisms. A medium forest floor might support 10,000 African elephants, 100 spotted hyenas, and only one or two crocodiles. *Grim Matchstick: Yes! *Selkie: Great! Now let's get back to the year of the dragon. I think there's a special coming up about a dragon who lent out money at a very high interest. *(Door bell rings) *Selkie: Hmm, who could that be? *(Selkie opens the door and the dragon gives her a box) *Selkie: You know there was something "burning" about that guy. Category:Education videos Category:Fire Emblem show